“I don’t need a hobby,” Dr. Relford Patterson stated, “Music is my work and my play.”
‘Doc’ Patterson, as he’s known to the neighbors, has been pursuing this “hobby” rather seriously since his high school days in North Carolina. On the advice of his teachers and as the result of a music filled home, he majored in music at Howard University.
Since then his “hobby” has led him half way around the world, from Madagascar in 1965 as a music specialist for the U.S. State Department to his present position as chairman of the music department at Fontbonne College.
In between, he has composed and directed many of his own compositions such as “Heralds of the Cross” for the centennial celebration of Wilberforce University; “Introit and Kyrie” work for choral and chamber orchestra first performed by members of the Washington University Chorus and the St. Louis Symphony; “Appogiatura” first performed at Tuskegee Institute; “Ideas on a Thursday”, performed as Muskegan, Michigan at a Danforth Fellows Retreat and Conference.
In Madagascar he helped the people organize a network of choruses throughout the island. “Music is as natural as breathing to these people,” he commented. “Going to a concert over there is as popular as going to a football game is here.”
His popularity on the island led to rave reviews whenever he conducted a performance. One of his prize possessions is a review which carries the headline, “Dr. Patterson, YES—VietNam, NO.”
Doc Patterson, who believes that a “commitment to excellence” is the first requirement of a teacher or musician, explains, “It would be hypocritical to say I teach all approaches to music. As much as I can, I show students all the choices they have. However, the development of excellence must involve choices. As a teacher, I have already explored these choices and have a duty to guide the students.”
Doc Patterson*s commitment to excellence has led him to a performance in the Radio City Music Hall in New York where he conducted the Tuskegee Institute Choir and to one of the highlights of his career — commendation from President John F. Kennedy, who witnessed his performance at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in December 1960.
Although he claims he is not a joiner, his is active in promoting excellence in music. He is on the board of directors for the Little Symphony Concert Association, Young Audiences, Inc. St. Louis Chapter, the Community Music School, and the Mississippi River Festival. He was recently appointed by John J. Cardinal Carberry, Archbishop of St. Louis as a member of the Commission on Religious Education. Locally he is a member of the school board of St. Roch’s School.
Still he believes in a “people to people approach” rather than joining organizations, signing petitions, yelling about issues. “After all the clamor, people end up standing there, looking at each other and asking where do we go from here? I respect people who live their beliefs rather than parade them.”
After two years in the neighborhood on Westminster, he states that he finds it exciting because of the great diversity of people.
This summer, other than waking up late each morning, all he plans to do is apply his standard s of excellence to his rose garden in back of his attractive home at 6116 Westminster Place.
He and his wife, Gloria, have two sons, Chip, 18, and Errol, 17, and a daughter, Myrnae, 15.
The oldest son, Chip, plans to carry on his father’s commitment to excellence, only in a field which is “about as far away as you can get from music when you consider that I nearly flunked math,” Doc commented, Chip, a national merit finalist at St. Louis University High School, plans to attend Purdue University in the fall to study aerospace engineering.
Originally published in The Paper, June 1970.
